A
Teacher’s Reflection Book: Exercises, Stories, Invitations.

This excellent book should be part of every
teacher’s professional library. It is a book pitched at all teachers in higher
education and, through the processes of reflection, a book that advances important
principles of good teaching practice that are usually introduced all too briefly
in the basic texts on teaching in higher education. It is a book that simultaneously
challenges and then guides us to be better teachers through the process of
reflecting where ‘... teachers remain learners, learning from their rich experience
with students, with the academy and with their scholarship’ (p.26).

Several descriptive words come to mind when
reading this book. It is a polite and
gentle book. Politeness is revealed
in the book’s sub-title – ‘Exercises, stories, invitations’. It is the idea of invitation that characterizes much of
the book. It is not didactic but rather invites us to use the book and the
processes described in it in ways that work best for us. It is also an accessible
book. Most refreshingly, it is not burdened with unnecessary technical jargon
and convoluted language that cripples too much writing in education today
and makes learning inaccessible to many, particularly for those readers whose
first language is not English.

The authors, Jean Koh Peters and Mark
Weisberg are both Professors of Law, she from Yale and he from Queen’s
University in Canada. Both have a strong, practical interest and commitment to
teaching that is well demonstrated throughout the book, none the least from
accounts of reflection retreats they have led for university teachers. It is in
these retreats that this book is grounded and from which it has drawn its
inspiration.

The six chapters are designed to help
teachers construct for themselves ‘mini-retreats’ for reflection that they can
work into their own lives. The book follows a clear, logical sequence that is
firmly anchored in teaching and students rather than in the concept of reflection
itself. I found this focus on teaching and students one of the most appealing
characteristics of the book and one that leads to its very practical and
relevant character.

Chapter 1 addresses the question ‘How does
a teacher say hello?’ The authors point out that the many hellos we say – when
we set the stage for teaching or when we meet students – send out clear signals
of welcome or impatience, engagement or apathy, or of simply getting down to
the business of learning. To help the reader with the importance of saying
hello in teaching, the book then provides examples of hellos and helps us,
through a series of questions, to reflect on the messages we send in our
hellos.

Chapter 2 describes what the authors mean
by reflection with suggestions for practice. Chapter 3 considers the skill of
listening and draws the important distinction between the critical and often
superficial listening so common in academic life with the deeper, open and less
judgmental listening that is sorely needed in reflecting on good teaching and
in our personal relationships. The title
of Chapter 4 asks ‘Who are our students and how and what do they learn in the
classroom?’ and invites us to reflect on our own experiences as students. Chapter
4 goes some way beyond reflection into consideration of ways of facilitating
better learning and it does so in ways that obliges us to reflect on our
practice as teachers. Finally, Chapter 5, ‘The teacher and vocation’, reflects
on some of deepest and most private fears of being a teacher, such as the fear
of failure and appearing foolish.

A
teacher’s reflection book is a very practical and personal guidebook and a rich source of
perspectives from which we are assisted to reflect on our teaching and on our
personal lives more generally.

By
way of conclusion it is important to return to the purposes of the book to
assess its achievements. These purposes are to assist teachers in reflection
events, either alone or with colleagues, by providing materials for prompting
reflection. In my view, these purposes have been achieved very well indeed. I
repeat my belief that this book deserves to be in every teacher’s library.

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About Me

I work as an education specialist in donor-funded educational development projects. Recent experience has been with Palestinian universities and schools in Indonesia. Previously, I worked in higher education research and development at the University of Adelaide and at the University of Indonesia.